Your Creator; the Almighty who has made you in HIS image; who sacrificed HIS Son for you; the one who designed you for a purpose; is calling you! He desires to have a relationship with you! Will you answer HIM?
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Here's A Thought...

HERE'S A THOUGHT...Here are some "THOUGHTS" that will hopefully answer some of the questions that you may have about what the Bible has to say about our everyday lives. These articles are here to provoke thought; provide answers, guidance and resources; all in an effort to bring you into a closer relationship with your Heavenly Father!

GOD BLESS and KEEP SMILIN'!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

TodaysSermon

I used this particulartitle as I reflect on where I am today and where I have come from. What I amreferring to, is spending time in awe and joy over where God has brought me inmy spiritual growth and maturity. I am dumfounded and even embarrassed at the philosophiesand theologies that I have clung to and what I have come to understand as truthtoday. I am just enamored at the evolution of my understanding and the growthof my intimacy with my Heavenly Father. I call this “Today’s Sermon” becausethat is where God has my heart today as I anxiously await where he will have metomorrow.

I was recently part of aconversation among good, honest, solid Christian men. As in any time where earnestbelievers are gathered together and sharing on their faith, discussing JesusChrist, (always AWSOME) and attempting to sort through the struggles of everydaylife in Christ; the conversation will inevitably cover the topic of what shouldbe preached from the pulpit related to specific subjects. Now I am not going tobring up the specifics of our most recent discussion. I will however note thatthese conversations are always born out of one of the hot topics of the day,usually social topics in nature.

That conversation sent mymind into overdrive. I haven’t been able to think of much since and what it hasbrought me to is the “sermon” that I would like to hear on Sunday morning. Iknow that this is quit self-serving; but after all, this is my blog. So anyway,my ideal Sunday morning sermon would go something like this:

There is a great andpowerful creator; one that existed before time, one that created space. Nothingexisted before it was created by God. There was nothing that existed beforeHim, and there will be nothing that lasts beyond Him. God has created all! Inthe vastness of the universe and all that exists, God took the time to create aone-time only, one of a kind, unique being…you. God took the time to create youout of a most profound act of love. All he wants from you is a relationship. Hewants to know you; He wants you to know Him.

God so wants to get toknow you and is offering Himself to you to the extent that he wants to spend aneternity with you. Not a lifetime, but an eternity. Here is the catch; His loveis so great that He will not force this relationship on you. Though it is in Hispower to create all, in any way that He wants, in his infinite love God hasgranted you free will. God has given you a choice. You don’t haveto do anything.

Now understand that God isa perfect God and a God of perfect order. Everything has been designedperfectly. Everything has been designed so perfectly and yet so complex thatscience has been defining and calculating and categorizing everything around usfor centuries. In this perfect design, there are laws. Laws of nature, laws ofscience, laws of motion and so on. Newton, Einstein, Galileo, Copernicus allwrestled with the perfect order and design of creation.

There is one law that weall operate under and we all have an understanding of, but for the life of me,I couldn’t find it mentioned as a specific law anywhere! What I am speaking ofis the law of relationships. There are rules, or laws if you will, that governhow we act in relationship to one another. Rules that if adhered to draw usinto closer relationship, and rules that if violated drive us apart. Examples:If you get married and continue to date around, you will not stay married verylong. If you have a girlfriend and you kiss another girl, no more girlfriend.If you physically or emotionally abuse someone you are in relationship with,you destroy the relationship. Now there are thousands of books written onrelationships, marriage, parenting and the like. Everyone and his brother havean opinion on how to improve on all the various relationships we find ourselvesin life. But what they all agree on is there are rules.

Now with all laws comerules. If you violate the rules, there are consequences. Once again, obeyingthe laws of relationship draw you closer; violating the laws of relationshipdrive you apart. To some this may be oversimplified, but I believe it really isthis simple. This is where things begin to get a little scary. These laws ofrelationship apply to God as well. (I will allow a minute for all the air toreturn into the room after the gasps.)

Here’s the deal, Godcreated us to have free will. In that free will He understands that allows uschoice and inevitably when given choices, bad decisions will be made – sin. SinI am going to simply define for you as any decision that violates the law ofrelationship between you and God. Now God being of perfect order understandsthat we will, by design, violate those laws of relationship and we will sin.Now in understanding that choice does not exist without consequences (again anotherpause to allow that to sink in, you may need to read that again…take your time),God has already paid the consequences of your violations through the sacrificeof His son Jesus Christ.

Recap: Laws ofrelationship; you are either moving towards a greater relationship or movingtowards separation. Laws of choice and consequence; every choice gives you apositive or negative consequence. There is one last law I want to discuss andthat is the law of what the Bible refers to as your fruit. To make it verysimple; your actions reflect your heart. Saying you are in a relationship whileviolating all the laws of relationship means…you are NOT in relationship.

I started out searchingfor which bible verses I would use in this. I very quickly realized from theGenesis to Revelations, that the entire Bible is about the joys and theconsequences of either being in or out of relationship with our Creator, ourGod, our Heavenly Father.

The message of thissermon is this: If you are violating Gods laws and/or Gods commandments, youare violating the laws relationship. If you are living in relationship withyour Heavenly Father, it will change you and you will desire to be in greaterrelationship, which means submission to relationship in Him; submission to Hisauthority, His rule, His laws. Jesus Christ came to pay the price, to pay theconsequences of our sins, our decisions that violated our relationship withGod. He did not come so that we could dance on His grave and then pull out our “getout of jail free card”. To know Jesus Christ, to know your Heavenly Father isto live in relationship. One prayer, one statement, one act of baptism is notgoing to get it done.

Your salvation is freelygiven by the grace of God; not by your works (or your actions), but by yourrelationship. My warning today is this: If you consider yourself a Christian andyou are living your life in violation of the laws of relationship with yourHeavenly Father; your day of judgment is going to be a very bad day. (Matthew7:21-23)

Pray with me; HeavenlyFather, I know that I have sinned against you and I have violated your laws,your commandments and your will for my life. Father, I know that my heart isweak and I pray for your Holy Spirit to fill me, to guide me, to strengthen meand to teach me as I commit to live every day of my life in greater relationshipwith you. Amen.

Additional Thought!

Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:5-8

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Let's talk, leave comments! Question? Let's open a dialogue. Suggestions for a topic or just want to chat! Send me an e-mail and we'll give it some thought! heresathought4u@gmail.com